Aufs

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aufs is an alternative version of unionfs a filesystem service which implements a union mount for Linux file systems. It is developed by Junjiro Okajima since early 2006.

It is a complete rewriting of unionfs, mainly to improve reliability and performance. It has also introduced some new concepts, like writable branch balancing, and many little improvement. Some of these new ideas are now re-implemented in the unionfs 2.x branch.

Another big difference is that part of unionfs 1.x is currently merged in the linux kernel (and 2.x in the --mm experimental tree) whereas aufs is not. This is because the author considers that aufs is still in the development stage.

Aufs has been chosen for replacement of unionfs by the Knoppix live CD Linux distribution since the end of 2006, "for better stability & performance"[1]

[edit] Notes

  1. ^ Knoppix release note explaining the switch from unionfs to aufs

[edit] See also

  • File system
  • Union mount, describing the concept of merging file system branches
  • UnionFS, the original union mount project, developed by Professor Erez Zadok and his team at Stony Brook University.

[edit] External links

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